


McDanno - sweet shorts

by ThatwasJustaDream



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Community: 1-million-words, M/M, Random & Short, Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-26
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-03 18:04:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 9,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2860019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatwasJustaDream/pseuds/ThatwasJustaDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quick McDanno fics! Chapter 11: Written for a Valentine's prompt - re: Candy Heart phrases. Chin catches a clue - Kono's not convinced.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 364 Problems

"Steve..."

"Yes, this is... _Danny?_ What's up? You don't sound like yourself. A few days of down time before the holidays are supposed to cut stress not ramp it up."

"If I supply the paper and reimburse the state of Hawaii for the electricity required to scan and print about two hundred and.... oh, God, no, more like ...carry the one... uh, 364 pictures, can I use the HQ equipment for a few hours?"

"Um... D, I've got a printer here at the house but what the heck do you need..."

"How about a scanner? Have you got one of those?"

"I don't think anyone's used a scanner since about 2003, but yeah.. if you really need it I think I still have one in the attic...what's going on?"

"Who has a scanner and a color printer at home? Are they weaponized in any way, or are they entirely safe to press any button on at any time...."

"Are you busting my chops for having exactly what you need? Seriously? I think sometimes you do it solely to wind me up or something...."

"You're right, that was entirely uncalled f....."

"I've got other things that are exactly what you need here, too. Things, as I've discovered lately, you really, really ....need. And since we've agreed never to use them in the office, I'm particularly in favor of you dropping by...."

"Stop that kind of talk right now, buddy. Grace is..."

"Tell me you don't have the phone on speaker."

"Of course not. With you? I can think of no circumstance under which I'd ever now dare to put you on speaker for the rest of our lives."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll slow down eventually. Everyone does after the initial 'gotta have you' phase, right?"

"God, I hope not."

"Ha. Well, maybe.... _someday_ eventually and not _soon_ eventually. What do you need all the electronics for, D?"

"School project. The cost of the 12 days of Christmas items. Gotta fill a huge piece of blank cardboard with cutout pictures of a dozen partridges in pear trees, scads of turtledoves, pipers up the ying-yang. Then the kids research prices, do the math and ..."

"Gracie forgot it 'til the last minute, right?"

"Yes, that would be the thing. It's due in eighteen hours and we've still got ten days to do. Oh, crap...ten whole days. I'm kind of scared we're going to need every minute we've got at this rate."

"I'll dig out scissors and old magazines. I think I might have a '12 Days of Christmas' book from when Mary was little. It'll be fine. We'll call in reinforcements if we need to."

"I love you."

"Love you, too."

"No funny talk though. Keep it clean, McGarrett, every single second we are there or I'll make you sorry."

"I'll restrain myself. I can do that, I'm a fully trained..."

"Fine. Just..don't forget."

"You have Grace with you the day after tomorrow?"

"No. Won't have her again 'til Christmas afternoon."

"Good. 'Cause now I've got it on the brain. Those needs of yours."

"You _need_ help."

"Nope. Just you."

"Cut it out, or this is going to be a even more painful afternoon than I'm already picturing."

"All right. I will. Until the day after tomorrow - then I'm talking dirty right in your ear until you pop."

"Dammit, Steven..."

"Stopping now. I swear. See you in a few, turtledove."


	2. Slightly Catatonic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a Thursday Trope prompt on 1_million_words: Post-Kiss Catatonia. It made me need some kiss-drunk Danny. ;)

“Hey… woah, _Danny_ , stop! You’re gonna….”

Kono had been hanging over the computer table for some time, working her way through a surveillance video frame by frame. She hadn’t seen Danny walk out of Steve’s office; had barely noticed him around until…

“What the….hell?” She watched him walk into a wall. Aiming for the door to leave, apparently, but missing by a good six inches. Hitting the jamb hard with his hip, shoulder and then his forehead.

“ _Owww_ ….” He stepped back, squinting at the door like 'why did you do that to me?'

“Are you okay?” Kono’s voice suggested she wasn't only talking about the impact of wood on bone.

“Yeah,” Danny said back, but it came out so disinterested - like she’d asked him if it was sunny outside.

He wasn't looking at her. Wasn't looking at anything; was staring back into the bullpen area and rubbing the red mark and slight but growing bump on his forehead, eyes glazed.

“Fine, I’m… am. Yes. Uhhhmm..…totally….good.”

“Well you don’t look it. You look like a bird that had one too many run-ins with a skyscraper.”

“I’m going to go get some coffee,” Danny said it to a specific point on the floor, eyes staring down, hand going to his pocket to fiddle with his car keys but not moving to actually go anywhere.

“Why? We have…..” she waved generally toward the coffee pot, then realized she could save her breath.

Danny wasn’t likely to hear her.

“Where you going, buddy?” Steve breezing out of his office, smiling loose and wide, walking like his feet were barely touching the ground. “Hey, how’d you manage to do that?”

He stopped on his way by Danny, leaning in over him. He was eyeing Danny’s forehead, but his fingers were touching Danny’s chin, thumb brushing lightly, repeatedly over Danny's lower lip, eyes asking for his to meet them.

It seemed to pop the bubble Danny had been floating in: he visibly surfaced, jumped a little and gasped, eyes narrowing like he’d like to clock Steve. Or maybe put him up against that door jamb.

“I’m going to go get some coffee,” Danny said again, and was gone. Happily, this time he found the exit.

“I’m standing right here!” Kono glared at Steve, arms out wide.

“Yes, you are,” Steve grabbed a mug and some coffee, the Cheshire Cat grin never leaving his face. “Hi.”

“And I saw that….”

“Saw what?”

“That’s what you’re going with? A non-answer? You were petting Danny’s mouth in the middle of the…”

Steve threw her a wink and kept going.

“What’s up?” Chin arrived, pointing back at the hall. “Danny doesn’t say hi, you look like you saw a UFO land….”

“I’m pretty sure Steve just kissed Danny in his office.”

“Um…. I’m not sure what to say…” Chin stopped across the table from her. “….except it’s probably not the first time?”

“Actually, I think it was.”

“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”

“Danny walked into a wall.”

“I know. I'm sorry... it’s not funny,” Chin stifled a laugh, waving at her frown and heading for his office. “They’ll be fine. They’re big boys.”

“I hope they’ll be fine…” Kono went back to her video, shaking her head. “Let’s just hope we don’t catch a case today.”


	3. Just One Look

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for the Hurt/Comfort challenge this week on the 1_million_words comm. The prompt was 'sensory loss' - oh the things we put them through!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up - if you're squeamish, there is a sentence or two describing eyes injured by radiation burning. It's not terribly gory, but if you are squicked by something like that I wanted you to know in advance.

“Ready?” Danny settled in, hands poised over the keyboard on Steve’s desk, butt settling into Steve’s extra plush office chair and not thinking for a minute that he needed a new one in his office, oh not thinking that at all. “Want me to start reading?”

“Yeah, babe,” Steve said. He was crumpled back on the couch by the far wall, voice scratchy with exhaustion, head forward and eyes on the floor, three quarters shut. “Fire away.”

Outdoors, he had been wearing sunglasses but in the privacy of HQ or home he went without them. It was still visible after all these days, how red and raw his eyes were, the glisten of the medicinal gel on his lids and lashes.

“Uhhhhm… uh… _haaaaung_ ….here goes,” Danny swallowed around the frog suddenly in his throat at the sight, and at how Steve’s head was wandering, aimed at nothing. Like a blind man’s. “Email number… one. From HP… _hnggg_.... D. Umm….Community Affairs…”

“Wait. Hold up,” Steve’s voice sharpened some, for a guy who'd been on a healthy dose of painkillers for nearly a week. “Stop.”

“What?”

“It’s all right if you’re still upset, Danny. You have a right to be. But I wish… if you are upset, I wish you’d get it out.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is it’s been six days and it’s gonna be weeks more before this is close to better and… you haven’t said a thing. About how this is affecting you?”

“Affecting _me_?” Danny said it to firmly dismiss any such bullshit, but even he could hear the hurt and frustration in his own voice. “That’s not… a consideration. No way am I sitting here and …bitching about how _I_ feel when you're going through.... _this._ Okay?”

“No,” Steve’s empty gaze never left the floor. “It’s not okay. If it’s too hard to talk about it in general, then pick something specific. Tell me one specific thing this situation made you feel this morning.”

“You want to know what I’ve been feeling? This morning?”

“I do,” the corners of Steve’s mouth turned up. “I think I said I do.”

“What I feel… is that I wish that Kono wasn’t such a freaking fantastic shot. I wish instead of grazing the fucker on the forehead and knocking him out cold she’d put the bullet through his goddamned knee. I wish I could have gotten my shoe up his ass before the EMTs got to him, and that he had suffered like crazy all the way to the hospital….”

"That's it - good. C'mon, keep going," Steve urged Danny did keep going against his own better judgment.

"I also thought... how much I'd pay to see you running into the surf right now, or even after an armed maniac. Then I got scared...'cause it hit me maybe you'll never get it all back, you know? Maybe I'll never be able to look at you and ask you a question without opening my mouth, get an answer from you without you opening yours."

_That rat bastard Wo Fat had paid someone, paid them in the event of his death to hurt Steve one more time; to tip the team to a major drug shipment that never existed and in the scuffle in the warehouse to get Steve in a headlock and aim a laser pen light slightly stronger than one used in boardrooms straight into his eyes._

_He'd shouted from the shock of it, disarmed by the sudden flash blindness - which only gave the bastard on him several seconds to pin him and do more damage. Chin and Danny didn’t pick up on it- were huffing and shouting as they countered the other two thugs. It was only after Kono took Steve's assailant down with one shot and they'd subdued them all that they saw what had happened - Steve not getting up, the smell of charred flesh._

_"Oh, my...God..." Kono had choked it out, Chin calling in an officer down._

_Danny had gone to him, mouth open, not able to get out a word at the sight; the whites of Steve's eyes seared red, the lids swollen and burned, his irises looking skewed and distorted, like they were melting. Like smeared blue-green paint._

_"It's bad, huh?" Steve had asked when Danny got arms around him but still wasn’t saying anything._

_"Yeah," Danny had helped him to sitting. "It's not good. You hurting?"_

_"I've hurt worse."_

_"Can you see?”_

_"Uh...no, not much. Some light. Things moving. Wavy motion. Can’t tell what, though."_

Retinal burns. Corneal burns. Thermal and radiation damage. If Kono hadn't stopped the guy when she did...

“Danno, come here....” 

Steve’s tired voice brought him back to the moment, and Danny saw Steve was sitting forward on the couch, now, a hand out for him, his eyes fully shut. “Please?”

He went to him, sinking to his knees in front of the sofa, feeling Steve pull him in to wrap those big, strong arms around him and squeeze him. He felt like a schmuck for giving in, venting like this, for making Steve emotional, too.

“It’ll be okay,” Steve said, and Danny heard the catch in his voice again- Steve hurting for him. “They’re healing. I can tell.”

“How can you be so sure? They said by now you should....”

“Well things don't always go on schedule, do they? All I know is the other day you were one blurry grey blob,” Steve sat back on the sofa, extending an arm to ask Danny to come join him. “And today, you’re three white blobs. I can tell your hands and arms from the rest of you. I see them flying around like birds.”

They’d only been together, really together for six months. It felt so unfair.

“If it doesn’t get better… I’m still here for the long haul. You know that, right? Here at work and …here as in at home?”

“Yeah?” Steve asked.

“Don’t you dare even question that.”

“Guess I picked well, didn’t I?” Steve’s fingers felt for and found Danny’s lips, his mouth following them to kiss him lightly. “When I picked you?”

~*~

It was Sunday, five weeks and three days after it happened that Danny woke up and felt it: Something was different.

He turned over to see Steve lying there, facing him. Watching him. 

Seeing him.

Danny half didn’t dare hope he was right - even though Steve had been progressing, could make his way slowly around the office or the living room now without a problem. The finer details had still been lost to him. Finer details as in facial expressions, and items in the room that were unfamiliar. 

You know, the little things. Not. 

Danny started to ask, but caught something in Steve’s expectant expression that made him stop and go at it a different way.

He raised an eyebrow instead. Jutted his chin at him, and asked it with his eyes. And Steve smiled - that soft, wide one he saved for only a few people. He nodded back - once.

“Oh…thank God,” Danny got up over him, too full of relief to stay still. “Everything?”

“Yeah. Everything. I see you didn’t shave yesterday,” Steve ran fingers over his jaw. “You’re all fuzzy. In the right way, I mean.”

“Son of a ….bitch. I can’t tell you how…”

“Thank you, Danny.”

“Thank you? No ‘thank you’, just… thank goodness…..” Danny hrrrumped as Steve flipped them, then watched Steve kissing his way down him and noticeably enjoying the view the whole way. “…..thank goodness….”

Thank God.


	4. Strong when you need me to be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a fill for the weekend challenge on the 1_million_words comm, the prompt being the Tarot card for 'Strength' I felt the need for some Danny being strong for Steve fic, and Steve moving toward a future where he's stronger inside, in terms of defending himself as much as others.
> 
> Also, just saying - I do actually like Doris, and I look forward to her return. I just hope there are significant fireworks between she and Steve over Wo Fat, and that they have some Danny/Doris sparring, 'cause that makes me very happy, lol....

“Hold up! I hear you, I ….hear you…” Danny called it louder, hoping Steve would catch the sound of his voice and stop the hell knocking at his door. “….almost there, can you…quit with the ….knuckles?”

Something about the staccato tap-rap-pound-tap, over and over again - it was driving his barely awake brain into the top of his skull. And yet, there was relief flowing through him, too. When the sounds had first pushed him out of deep, blissful, ‘Saturday night don’t have to work tomorrow’ sleep and into awareness he’d been convinced it couldn’t be Steve. ‘Cause Steve would call first.

The list of other things it might be - bad things involving Grace or Rachel and her family, or maybe more fallout from all the awful events of the last few months? It had given him that heart pounding rush of adrenaline and worry he knew all too well.

Then he’d looked at his nightstand and saw his phone battery was dead, and the vague, shadowy threat at his door morphed into Steve; a Steve who needed him right this second. His heart had risen up high - for a couple of reasons.

“Hey,” He kept it to that when he opened the door, taking a second to look Steve up and down for clues to his emotional state. “Didn’t think I’d see you this weekend.”

“Yeah. Uh…can I… sorry to show up like this, but can I come in?”

“Of course,” Danny waved him by.

Steve had his ‘surfacing’ expression on; the one that suggested he was coming back to the world around them from time spent deep inside his own head. As in probably the entire drive here. It would have been a long one – Danny knew the part of the North Shore that a recently reunited Doris and Mary and Steve had chosen for a getaway, to finally hash things out.

It wasn't hard to see Steve had been churning through a lot of unhappy thoughts the whole drive. Now those thoughts were taking a back seat, and the relief in Steve’s eyes; the realization that things weren’t awful right now, not this very second, that they wouldn’t always be full of hard to handle words…. it made Danny’s heart swell, seeing it.

“Did Mary ditch her well ahead of the plan, too? Or is she still up there?”

“She’s with mom,” Steve took his hand, and Danny let him pull him toward his sofa. "I didn’t ‘ditch’ her. I told I feel like we said everything we have to say for now. Mary needs more of her time, with a daughter to raise.”

“I suppose. I can see that,” Danny sat next to him, hitching around a bit to face him. “What did she say? Tell me you really let loose with it - gave her your full and unedited thoughts about her supporting that piece of crap. Letting him live long enough to….”

“I did,” Steve cut him off, but not impatiently. There was even a hint of a sad smile at the corners of his mouth as he sank back against the couch. “What she said for herself… well, there wasn’t anything comforting in it. Not a damn bit. But at least I got it off my chest.”

“And now I’m the one holding back,” Danny set a hand high up on Steve’s shoulder, let his palm slide to cup the back of Steve’s neck, and he could feel him relax into his touch. “‘Cause I know you don’t need to hear me go off on her the way I’d like to.”

“That’s not why I’m here. I’m not looking for sympathy. Something happened while we were talking, Danny, something really important. I didn’t want to wait to share it.”

“Oh, yeah?” He took Steve's hand again.

This was intriguing. And Steve looked …excited. Not in a sexy way, in a determined one and damn that was… lovely too. Simple enthusiasm on his face, for whatever epiphany had struck.

“She was going on about the 'whys' of what she did when I was a kid and it hit me: I don’t need it anymore. I don’t need answers or an apology. Not because I think I don’t deserve them, but…she’s never going to make it up to me. She doesn’t even really get that she should try, I don’t think, based on what she had to say today. All at once, the only thing I wanted was to be home.”

“But you came here instead…. because…”

Danny's confusion only made Steve smile wider, and something about the way his eyes were lighting up made Danny's heart jump with something he hadn't felt in a while. Hope. For Steve, and for the two of them.

“I said ‘home,’ Danny. Not my house. Home. Our work Ohana is hugely important to me- you know that. So are Mary and …even Doris. I’ll never shut her out entirely - but she’s never getting in again, not really. ‘Cause …I realized you’re ‘home’ for me now. One hundred percent.

“Uh… Steven, as much as I’d like to simply take that happy news and run with it…” Danny reached up for a quick kiss to show him he meant it. “….you think I’m…a jerk sometimes. Picky and pedantic and overly sensitive and…I know this to be the case because you’ve said so. Recently. In front of a doctor.”

“Yeah,” Steve said it like there as no news going on there. “But you’re also…solid. Stable and kind. You have this amazing inner strength. Tell me: If someone threatened you, said they were going to hurt Grace and me and you had to desert us right this second to protect us…you wouldn’t do it, would you?”

“No goddamn way,” Danny didn’t need to think about that one. “I’d see them in jail or if that didn’t work… I’d go right through them.”

“I know you would. She didn’t leave dad and Mary and me to protect us, Danny. She left because she couldn’t deal with it: Being real with us. Telling my father the truth, taking on whatever came at them together. She didn’t have it in her to make us her priority once her story fell apart. With my dad…at least I can say I think he really felt what he did was for the best, but…I don’t know. I’m not sure I’ll ever get there with her.”

“Wow,” Danny fell back against the couch, amazed. “That had to be so hard to say out loud.”

“Yeah…” Steve seemed to have more to say but then he faltered and Danny reached out an arm.

“Come here,” he pulled him in and felt those long arms go around him, too. He buried his face in Steve’s neck and held on tight. “It’ll be okay, you know? It really will…”

“I want us to be public, Danny. About us. That’s the other thing I decided,” Steve said, still wound around him. “Not just to our friends – with everyone.”

“Fine,” That one wasn’t as much of a surprise. He’d kind of sensed… or maybe just hoped that Steve was getting to that point the last few months. “I get to tell her. I call dibs on that, for sure.”

“She’ll only swallow her reaction and smile,” Steve warned. “She kind of already knows, I think…”

“Sure, but…there will be that one second. That instant where it really lands with her and…I get to see that.”

“You are enjoying the thought…” Steve stood and asked for Danny’s hand again and Danny let himself be tugged again, this time toward his room. “…way too much. That’s not the kind, steady you I was talking about….”

“Yeah, well…you know what you’re getting - the whole package, good and bad. I wasn’t feeling so strong and steady when you showed up. Didn’t know it was you and …I have to say I kind of felt like a scared twelve year old when I heard that banging. You know...just for a second.”

“Of course. Just for a second...” Steve was toeing off his shoes and pulling off his shirt, letting Danny help with his jeans and he sounded three quarters asleep before they even hit the bed. “We’ll keep each other where we need to be. We’ll keep each other strong. Right?”

“Absolutely, babe. One hundred percent.”


	5. Humuhumunukunukuapua'a versus Floccinaucinihilipilification

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the word of the day on the 1_million_words comm, which today is Floccinaucinihilipilification. It felt like it called for some McDanno dialogue-only. :)

"There is not."

"Absolutely, there is."

"There's no English word longer than the name of our state fish. Can't be."

"You're even more wrong than you usually are, babe; it's not even funny, how wrong you are."

"Okay... you've got a word longer than Humuhumunukunukuapua'a? Let's hear it."

"Floccinaucinihilipilification. For the win."

"You made that up."

"Did not."

"Then what does it mean? Say it fast, no taking a whole minute to cook something up."

"It means to be deemed valueless."

"Use it in a sentence."

"I brought my family heirloom to to the Antiques Road Show, but it suffered a most unfortunate Floccinaucinihilipilification when the auctioneer guy told me it came from out of a Cracker Jacks box."

"Okay, let's say you didn't make that ridiculous word up; it still has to be close. How many...."

"Twenty nine letters."

"Oh, come on...."

"What, 'oh, come on?' Shut up and listen. And count. f-l-o-c-c-i-n-a-u-c-i-n-i-h-i-l-i-p-i-l-i-f-i-c-a-t-i-o-n. 

"You always have to be right, don't you?"

"What are you... doing? Stop it...."

"Drives me crazy....mmm _mmmmm_ mmmmm."

"Oh, very ...mature ...ooOOfff...pinning me down and beating me up with your hips ....just because you're a huge, enormous...goof and you can....aww _wwwmmm_ mmm...."

"Thought you liked it when I...."

"Get your ....damned.... humuhumu off my nukunuku..."

_*snorting grunts punctuated by low, grim chuckles*_

"We're gonna be late for work if you don't stop this."

"We wouldn't be late ...if you didn't pick fights with me before we even get out of bed."

"We wouldn't fight if you didn't....always....ahh _hhgahhhhmm_ mmm...have to be right. No, don't stop, don't...too late to stop, keep... _yeah_ , keep going..."

"Mmmmmmm.... shit, D... ... _yessssss_....gonna push a.... 29 letter sound ....right out of you......"

"I'll settle for twelve, babe. We should ....fight like ....this more mornings....."


	6. The Note

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is written as a reward for Simplyn2deep for her Weekend Challenge graphics at 1-million-words. Her prompt request was a ficlet with Steve being concerned what it was doing to Danny, Charlie being sick. Hope you enjoy the ensuing tooth-rotting levels of McDanno fluff. :)

“Danny…. c’mon! We are officially late for this thing.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, babe,” Danny shouted back to Steve who, from the sound of his voice was waiting in their living room but maybe was also on the verge of coming back up to get him. “Just a sec, okay? Swear I’ll be right down.”

He’d had a tough time picking out a tie to go with his new suit. Digging around at the back of his closet shelves, looking for maybe one more option that might go with this particular shade of grey, his fingers had brushed over it: The note that had sealed the deal.

Honestly, he didn’t give a crap if they were late. Reading this one sheet of crinkled, yellowing paper again was far more important than any party.

~*~

_Danno, I’m sorry for doing this the gutless way - in writing. But you know how bad I am at expressing myself in spite of your very impatient and deeply appreciated help…_

He remembered, now, how his heart had fallen reading those first lines when he’d found this on the dash of his car so long ago; the fear of what Steve might have written next had felt like an unexpected vice around it as he pulled the door shut.

_I have to write it out, because I need you to know some things one hundred percent and I can’t afford to screw it up. First, what you saw when you came by yesterday? Cath and me on the beach, sitting in our chairs? Yeah, I won’t deny it -- she was making her pitch why we should stay together. But Danny, it’s not going to happen and you don’t need to feel bad or like it has anything to do with you…._

It had been horrible, that moment; seeing her leaning in toward him, the sunset brilliant behind them, her holding Steve’s hand and caressing it. Except that as Danny got closer, he’d realized the look in her eyes was all ‘please’ and Steve’s was all ‘goodbye.

_I can’t be with her. With what’s happened to me in my life I need serious amounts of ‘through thick and thin’ and ‘better or for worse’ and she and I were never that. There’s a reason for these sayings, isn’t there? They mean something._

_I also need to make sure you understand that I’m here for you whatever way you need me. You need us to be best friends and nothing more? That’s fine. But if you want more…_

There were scratch-outs, after that; an entire sentence had been written and then scribbled over almost violently with wide, frustrated pen marks that practically tore through the paper. Danny traced the weakened ink splot with his thumb, smiling sadly at the thought of Steve wrestling with so many emotions.

_Look, all I can say is I saw it on your face after I kissed you. I saw that you were happy but also… I don’t know. Freaked out? You looked like you wanted to say you don’t need one more thing on your overflowing plate. I get it. I see what you’re going through – trying to help Charlie, not sure if it really is helping, worrying about whether he has a decent shot at being a healthy, happy kid again. God, I hope so – I hope so as much as anybody does- for him and for you._

_I didn’t mean to add to your burdens, buddy. But you standing in my kitchen, looking so shell-shocked after the latest rounds of his treatments…_

_I meant to hug you. I didn’t mean to kiss you. I’m not sorry it happened, but if you are… sorry that it happened… then please forgive me._

_I’ll always be there for you, however you want me. Forever._

_Steven_

~*~

“Kono will have actual steam coming out of her ears,” Steve said to him when Danny walked slowly down the stairs. “You know she’s been planning this for weeks…”

“Relax,” Danny straightened Steve’s tie, and gave him a push toward the door. “The way you drive? We’ll make up the time. And then some.”

“Do you think Charlie will mind sharing his birthday party with our anniversary party?” Steve asked as he locked up.

“Nah. It’s only his twelfth. After this year, though? Once he’s a teen? It’s probably gotta be all about him for a while, his day. Hey…. stop, okay?”

Steve did, looking confused as Danny stepped in and wrapped himself around him on their stoop, reaching up to kiss him.

“What was that for?” Steve asked.

“Does it have to be for anything?”

“No, but…after seven years of marriage you’re supposed to be bored with me.”

“I was thinking back, while I got ready,” Danny said. “To when Charlie was little…”

Steve had been standing over him, but dropped in now to be forehead to forehead with his husband.

“Thick and thin, Danny,” he murmured.

“For better or for worse,” Danny said back. “And absolutely… forever. Now let’s get our asses in gear…before she kicks them all over the restaurant.”


	7. Flame of Burnt Brandy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written from a prompt on the 1_million_words comm. The prompt was an unusual and unique color: _Flame-of-burnt-brandy - a 19th century colour invented by the dyeing industry, described in 1821 by one ladies’ magazine as a mixture of "lavender grey, pale yellow, and dark lilac._. From that, I got this moment of (unusually) romantic McDanno

“Tell me you did not order an eighty-five dollar after dinner drink?” 

Danny saw Steve give the tiniest of smirks in response to his question. He knew that look; it meant he was appreciating Danny taking note of it, and of how the wait staff was setting up to prepare it for them, table-side.

“I did,” Steve said.

“Only the one glass, though, huh?” Danny tried to moderate the degree of snark in his voice and failed. 

It wasn’t his fault Steve had a well-established reputation for being careful with a buck.

“Yeah, Danno, only the one,” Steve gave him an elbow nudge, then his arm went up and around Danny’s shoulder in the booth they were sharing at the back of the restaurant. “Watch them make this for us, okay? Observe.”

Danny huffed a sound that said he would, but that he considered this whole thing to be way over the top for the two of them.

Then he admitted to himself (silently; no way he was telling Steve) that his momentary pissiness was… nerves. Maybe. No, definitely. Nerves. They’d only been ‘them’ a few weeks – hadn’t done much more than roll around on Steve’s couch; kissing, fingers tracing, limbs tangling as they twisted against each other and delivered sucks and scratches, tiny purple love bites, cataloging all of each others’ sensitive spots.

It had been an… _awesome_ few weeks.

Then out of nowhere, Steve wanted to formally date. Which was weird, because he never seemed to feel a pressing need for that with a certain other someone. So tonight they’d walked in here together, past more than a couple of familiar faces – people from the governor’s staff, an HPD detective and his family, the head of Gracie’s summer camp among them.

“There’s a real art to this….” Steve’s voice cut through Danny’s self-conscious brooding as the two-person team from their wait staff went to work. “That’s a sugarloaf…”

“I can see that it’s a cone made of sugar,” Danny waved at it like ‘who wouldn’t,’ but he settled his head into the nook of Steve’s arm, observing. “Why’s it almost a triangle?”

“It actually _was_ a full triangle before they cut off the top of it making burnt brandy for other people. Now it’s a dome, I guess. Sugarloafs are made in a very ancient tradition,” Steve explained as the headwaiter cut the first of two large rectangles of sugar away from the loaf, setting bricks of it with the consistency of flaky chalk into a small metal bowl. 

“It’s beet cane processed by hand over and over until it’s pure sugar, than molded and dried. These cones were what you bought at the store way back when - from the fourteen hundreds through the seventeen hundreds. Now they’re very rare. Obviously.”

“Thus the big price tag, huh?” Danny said.

“Yes. And the Brandy is very fine, too,” Steve said as the waiter poured it over the sugar and reached in with a flambé torch to set the combined contents on fire. “That’ll burn for a couple of minutes….”

Danny nodded – that much he knew. Then he let the conversation lag, eyes transfixed by the pale yellow fire with purple tips; hints of lavender and grey flickering all through the dancing flames as the liquor and sugar burned as one.

“You’ve had this before?” Danny asked, feeling increasingly relaxed against Steve as he watched the show.

“Yes. Because of my rank and…well, uh…things I …did…” Steve sounded hesitant to tout himself, then pushed forward. “I got invited to some pretty elaborate events. One night, an admiral served this for twenty of us; the waiters lined up and prepared it in synch.”

“Did they have the local fire department standing by?”

“No, but I’m sure the place had wall-to-wall sprinklers,” Steve said, giving Danny’s shoulder a squeeze with the arm still over it. “This one does, too…”

“Not worried,” Danny said. “Just not sure the point of burning a perfectly good plate of sugar and expensive booze for the heck of it…”

“There’s more to it than that,” Steve tilted his head to speak the words against Danny’s hair, and he felt a shiver from that – Steve’s breath warm on him in a room full of people. “You’ll get it, when you taste it.”

Danny shook off the dizzy little headspace he’d fallen into, becoming more aware of Steve holding him. He watched as the headwaiter snuffed the last of the flames with a plate, pouring the burnt brandy from the bowl into a crystal rock glass.

The glass was a work of art, too; full of sharp angles and edges that caught the candlelight. You could cut yourself holding a glass like that if you weren’t careful.

“Enjoy, sir,” the headwaiter said as he slid it toward Steve.

Danny watched Steve pull it in, spinning it on the tablecloth, making the candlelight caught by the glass flash like fireworks - like the sparklers sticks kids wave in July.

The brandy was a deep brown, now. It looked sweet and exotic and delicious.

“Have the first taste,” Steve said.

“You should,” Danny objected.

“No… you….please.” Steve said.

Danny picked up the glass and took a drink. It looked like there were maybe four ounces and he didn’t want to be a hog - so he drew in about one. It tasted as unique as he expected: Like port wine, but richer, as if you could still taste the actual fruit in it. 

It was deeply sweet, too; it danced on his tongue and all the way down his throat and gave him that happy thrill you get as a kid at the county fair eating something your parents normally never let you have. Then there was the kick – the warmth that said you’d be enjoying a nice buzz momentarily.

“All right, I get it,” Danny said. “Before, they were just sugar and alcohol but ….now they’re a different thing, the two of them blended.”

“Exactly,” Steve said, and Danny watched him lean in slightly, mouth angled in a way that Danny knew was a request for a kiss. “Can I?”

Danny nodded and closed his eyes; felt the repeated press of Steve’s mouth against his – not a lewd kiss, nothing you couldn’t enjoy in front of family and friends until…a tongue swipe. Quick and light, Steve chasing the taste of the drink on Danny’s mouth. And then another.

“You… are so confusing,” Danny breathed the words out when he pulled away, head finding the nook in Steve’s shoulder again.

“Yeah? Am I?”

“Sometimes you’re so…awkward. A complete goof. Sometimes you’re a literal maniac. And then… other times, like right now? You feel way out of my league.”

“Funny,” Steve reached for the glass. “I was thinking the same thing.”

Danny watched him drink; watched Steve taste the brandy thoroughly and then swallow it down, the bob of his throat as he did. 

“Tell me,” Danny said. 

“Tell you what?”

“Before we lose all perspective and start making out like kids in this fancy restaurant… tell me why you only ordered only one.”

Steve nodded, but it took him a second to get going. Like he had to brace himself.

“A lot of us were solo at that dinner the admiral held. But a few of the guests were married, or they had a plus one with them. This one couple? I watched them share a glass. In between sips…. they would kiss. They looked … Danny, they looked like they had everything on Earth they needed right in that room. All I could think was ‘I’ll never have that.’”

“Steven….”

“Too soon?” Steve asked. “Did I say too much?”

It brought Danny up short, how ready Steve was to retreat.

“No…. woah. That is not where I was going. I was thinking… we should make this a tradition. You know? For birthdays and…such.”

“Yeah?” 

“Yes,” Danny took the glass and another sip, spinning it back toward Steve. “Finish this.”

“In a hurry?” Steve asked, catching it.

“No,” Danny reached up for another kiss- and this time, not caring who might see or what may lay ahead. “I’m really not. Take your time and enjoy it. ‘Cause everything I need? It’s right here, babe.”


	8. Love is...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Putting this here 'cause it's just a little scene, one that is mostly dialogue-only, too. Written for the Weekend Challenge on the 1_million_words comm, the prompt I received was: "Love is ...better than psychoanalysis."

"What do you mean, you're not going back to therapy with me? We have to go back to therapy. It's mandated, buddy. Mandated, as in the opposite of voluntary."

"I think it's pretty clear what I mean. I said the words and you just repeated 'em: _I'm not going back to therapy with you_. What part don’t you understand?"

"You get it, don't you? That they're not messing around? We either go back to therapy or we are in violation of procedures and... they could bust us up, Steve. They could put me one some desk job at HPD and assign you a new detective."

"Like hell they will. With our team’s case record? No way they'll touch us."

"Jesus Christ you are...so goddamn stubborn. Why? Why do you feel the need to be so stubborn about _this_ right _now_?"

"Because right now _sucks_ , Danny, in case you hadn’t noticed. The last few weeks? There’s no way I’m talking about it all with some well-intentioned but way too touchy-feely counselor. And why do you care, anyway? If I remember right, you thought us being ordered there was B.S. too?”

"You're correct. I did think it was B.S. But you know what? Once we got going with it, we actually made some progress and... I like what it's done for us. You opened up a little, I opened up a little. You told me things you never told anyone, I got you a guitar. We are not arguing as much and ... we're good. Maybe better than we've ever been. So wouldn't it be nice if we keep working at it?"

"We. Don't. Need. Them. For that. We are fine."

"Apparently the state of Hawaii thinks we need them for that. And the governor's office. Your boss thinks we need counseling, but not you. No.... you, in your infinite wisdom, are giving a big old middle finger to the people who want us to succeed and who have an actual say in the matter...."

"We've got something better than counseling, Danny. Better than psychiatry."

"What's that, oh Seer of the Big Picture? What is this magical thing we've supposedly got?"

"We've got love."

"Ex-squeeeze me?"

"I love you, Danny. You love me. We fight, yeah, but that's us; it's our personal dynamic. And frankly? We stop fighting, I'll miss it. I truly... will miss it."

"You... love me?"

"Of course I do. I've said so. We say it to each other a lot."

"A few times. We said it ...a few times. Not a lot."

"A bunch of times. In the hall, here at work. At Kamekona's a few weeks ago, and ...."

"Yeah, but we were ...joking. Being facetious. You know? As in 'go to physical therapy, I hope it hurts you very much and oh, by the way, I love you, you stupid fucker...'"

"That may be what you meant when you said it. It's not what I meant."

"You... love me?"

"You sound like a parrot, D. Of course, I do. How many other people know exactly, down to the day, how long it's been since they met you? Could Rachel even tell you, if you asked her? I'll bet you fifty bucks right now she can't."

"I thought you knew the number 'cause every one of them was...I don't know, a trial or something?"

"Of course not. I know because it matters to me. I will always know how long it's been since we met, because I care very much when I met you, that I met you, and how many days we've had together."

"Jesus.... Steven....wow. I....didn't know....."

"That's not true, either: You do know. How many people do you get on planes for? A plane anywhere, let alone somewhere like North Korea or Afghanistan? How many people would you expect to stand right by you when you're wired to a bomb and not even consider walking away."

"You love me."

"Look.... I have to go. I have to file the monthly case reports by five or...they really will give us serious grief. Okay?"

"You don't love me... like _that_? Do you?"

Steve had started to walk to his office when Danny asked it. The way he stopped at the question and didn't turn immediately? The way he locked eyes with him when he did? Danny's breath caught in his chest, his heart beating faster.

"I love you in every way there is to love someone. All right?" Steve said. "And I'm not going back to therapy. 'Cause we don't need it."

And then, Danny watched Steven Mr. Compartmentalized McGarrett walk into his office full of windows and get right to work on his computer, like Danny wasn't standing a few yards away on the other side of the glass staring at him in some degree of shock.

~*~

"Hi, doc? Thanks for taking my call. It's Danny Williams. Look, about our counseling appointment... I need to ask you a favor. Can you give us a break for...two weeks, let's say? Then, I promise, we'll be back in your office and ready to work with you. Yeah, I know... I do... yes, I get it, if we aren't there regularly you can't ...lie and say we are. You can't fudge that on our records, but you could, you know...not report us? Just note it for now, maybe? Yeah... thing is..... he's had a lot hit him at once and he's retreated to 'turtle mode,' you know? Pulled right into his shell. He'll talk to me, but...there's no way I'm getting him in there -- not this week and probably not next. When he gets like this...it takes time. Yes. I will, I swear. We will. Great. Thanks. Yes, our regular day and time - two weeks. See you then."


	9. Knee Socks, Suspenders and Hot Wax

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is written to a Word of the Day prompt on the 1_million_words comm. The prompt: Fackeltanz (noun) | fackeltanz (fack·el·tanz) | German, from fackel torch (from Old High German faccala, facchela, from Latin facula small torch) + tanz dance, from Middle High German, from Old French dance.
> 
> In this ficlet, Danny refers to events in another very short story that I wrote way back.... [which also involved a somewhat obscure performing art form. ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/867256/chapters/1685008) It seemed only natural to go with a little something in the same vein, here. ;)
> 
> As with the earlier story, no disrespect whatsoever is intended toward anyone's traditions. Danny's rantings and ravings are entirely his own. :)

“You know what this reminds me of?”  Danny finished tucking in the white shirt, futzing with the microscopic button just south of the wide collar that sat like a pair of stiff wings under his chin.

It was bad enough having to play dress up for an undercover op – but this outfit? It felt ridiculous, and also like it was actually trying to strangle him.

“No,” Steve didn’t look up; was busy examining the elaborate black suspenders that went on over the shirt, reminding himself exactly how to arrange them before sliding them on so that he wouldn’t have to wrestle with them twice. “What does it remind you of, buddy?”

“That horrible school concert we had to sit through for six hours. Remember that? The charity thing?”

“I’d forgotten,” Steve tugged the many vertical, horizontal and crossed-over straps into place, clipping the suspenders to the top of his long, black, slightly baggy shorts.  “...but it took years. It might take me years to forget it again.”

“At least that day we got to sit still and drink punch. We didn’t have to gear up like German elves and dance around with a bunch of strangers, holding incendiary devices in our hands while trying to spot the bad guy.”

“Candles, Danny. Candles. Nothing’s getting set on fire tonight, as long as we remember the steps….”

Danny bit back his continued, unhappy thoughts about the evening’s mission. Steve was only trying to help, for once: Wasn’t berating him for his fit of nerves over so many people marching and dancing in a small auditorium that would turn claustrophobic right quick, or his unhappiness at having to dance _at all_ in _public_ – in front of an actual _audience_.

Who knew there was a German-American society in Hawaii? Or that they danced the Fackeltanz a couple of times a year as part of their traditional ceremonies?

And who, exactly, was stalking and threatening to kill their club president – and why?  Well…that’s what they were called in to find out, wasn’t it?

Sometimes Danny missed walking a beat. Simpler times.

“I wish to hell Kono were dancing. I would feel a crapton less nervous if it were _her_ waving a hot, burning stick of wax in my general direction every few seconds. Who knows if they’ll pair me up with a talented Fackeltanzer, or with a sloppy Fackeltanzer. You know?”

“Kono and Chin will be where we need them the most,” Steve finished tugging on his long, patterned knee socks and searched up the special, buckled shoes that finished the outfit off. “…up in the rafters, with rifles and scopes, having our back.”

“I also don’t understand why a ceremonial dance has to take an hour and a damned half?”

“It wouldn’t be much of a ceremony if they went out there, twirled around three times and called it quits. Would it?”

“Guess not…” Danny was so distracted by the butterflies in his stomach that he barely noticed Steve stepping in, pressing him back toward Steve’s office door, and pinning him to it with one hand. “Geez, I can’t wait to get out of this getup.”

“Can’t wait to _help_ you get out of it,” Steve took another step in, and now it was Steve’s hips pinning him, the hand moving south to tweak Danny’s suspenders, then to glide along his back and find an ass-cheek, squeezing lightly. “Will you wear just the suspenders for me later?”

“Animal.”

“And the socks. I’d love it if you’d….”

“Fourteen year old…”

“…leave the socks on.”

“…you’re an actual fourteen-year-old and I hate you. And I hate my whole ….”

Steve dipped in, covering Danny’s mouth with his own before Danny could say ‘life,’ and Danny let him, allowed himself to get lost in the warmth of that sweet, hungry mouth and the glide of Steve’s tongue along his.

“Stop it,” he said, eventually. “I already have enough distractions; don’t need you making me pitch a tent in these stupid, stupid shorts.”

“You look adorable in them, Danno,” Steve said, nudging him away from the door and opening it.

“I look ridiculous. You look….hot. Which I wouldn’t have believed possible,” Danny let himself be propelled out into the hall. “Okay, let’s go get this spectacle the hell over with.”

“Three hours, Danny. That’s all,” Steve locked up and followed him. “Maybe four. Then I’m putting your wool-covered knees up by your ears and….”

“ _Stop_ it….”

“….we’ll do a whole different dance.”

~*~

They got the bad guy. And with all those flying, fluttering candles? Nearly no one in the audience noticed the kerfuffle amongst all the Fackeltanzing.

They kept the suspenders. No one believed they accidentally lost them – in fact, Steve was pretty sure Kono’s eyebrow was going to arch right off her forehead when they went with that story.

For Christmas, Danny got a bunch of knee-socks in his stocking.  Steve tipped his over to find a bunch of little candles made of body oil that would never see a dance floor.


	10. Polka Dot Bikini

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "polka-dot" from the icon/drabbleish challenge going on at 1_million_words on LJ.

"No, no, no! NO!" Danny pointed, barking it in the tone reserved, most usually, for miscreants they were busting and hauling off either to HPD or the federal pen. "Get back up there."

"Danno!" Grace whined, beach blanket fisted in one hand and sunglasses in the other. "Pleeeeaaase...."

"Up the stairs, young lady," he got in front of her in case she had any thoughts of bolting past him to the beach. "Put on your old suit. Or shorts and a tee. Whatever. You are NOT going out there like that. Not. No way."

"Daaaaanoooooo...."

"No! No, no, NO!"

She turned and ran, pounding her feet into the steps leading back into Steve's house.

Danny was too busy watching her, fuming, to notice Steve coming up from the beach - returning from his morning swim. Looking concerned. That little wrinkle in his eyebrow, just north of his nose.

"What's wrong?" 

Steve had only caught the most basic gist - that Grace was upset about something and Danny more so. 

"Itty bitty... teenie weenie .... _black_ polka dot bikini." Danny said.

"Oh, hell," Steve said, and Danny snickered at the 'you poor son of a bitch' in his voice.

They'd both noted the neighbor's visiting grand-nephew, who was in town for the summer- and how Grace had been mooning over him. It didn't take much to add it up: New boy, new swimsuit. 

Which, Danny knew, might be fine and out of his purview to have _any_ say in if Grace were sixteen, maybe, instead of barely fourteen. _That_ made it his business.

"Are you sure...you're not overreacting?" Steve asked, finding the towel he'd left on his chair and drying his hair.

"I'm sure."

"How sure?"

"There was more string than fabric."

"Ouch. I don't envy you, Danny. Having to deal with the next few years."

"You _will_ help back me up?" Danny asked. "Right?"

"Are you kidding?" Steve shrugged, heading for the kitchen. "I'm the one who wants her to go to college online. I've got your back, babe."


	11. Hugs and Kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for the Valentine's prompt, "Hugs and Kisses" on LJ's 1_million_words comm. Yet another Chin and Kono finding out fic, lol...but Chin's caught the clue this time. Oh, and I think it's my first Steve/Danny fic without Steve Danny actually in it! :)

Chin was surprised he was the first to pick up on it: That things had changed for the physical between the detective and their commanding officer. 

Kono was the one on the team most perceptive about interpersonal stuff, yet she didn’t seem to notice something was most definitely up - unless she did, and was just being discreet. But… no. She always tossed Chin an eye-roll when Steve and Danny fought like a married couple out on a crime scene, yet their recent displays of blatant affection raised nary an eyebrow on her.

“If you’re done over-celebrating the fact that it’s Tuesday morning,” Chin walked by them on the way to grab coffee. “Maybe you two can unwind yourselves from each other, and we’ll look at that evidence HPD sent over? I’ve got it loaded and ready to go.”

“Sure,” Steve said, but he still barely stepped away from Danny - one arm still around him even though they’d stopped hugging, fingers on that hand running up and down Danny’s side over and over, like that’s something you do with your buddy all the time. “Danny just found out Gracie lettered on the cross-country team! How great is that?”

“Wow, that is, it’s…awesome,” Chin smiled. “Congrats to her, Danny, she should be proud.”

It was awesome, but….back-when, it wouldn’t have merited more than a quick hug, a strong back clap and maybe a follow up slap on the butt from Steve to Danny. Today, he’d swung Danny around in his arms for what seemed like a full minute — was still standing there, gazing down at Danny’s content, grinning face with a goofy smile of his own and….. wow. 

Chin shot a look over at Kono, an inquiring one. But all he got back was a slightly confused kind of ‘what?’ in her eyes, so he let it go.

~*~

“Oh, c’mon,” Chin had just walked back in the office with their Wednesday, hump-day, ‘let’s splurge on the big, tasty sandwiches’ lunch in his arms. 

“C’mon, what?” Kono asked, walking over to relieve him of one of the bags.

“You can’t tell me you don’t see….that.”

Steve was standing behind a seated Danny a few yards away in Danny’s office, the heels of his hands working over his partner’s shoulders, his back as Danny stared at the desk, arms loose around the keyboard.

“What?” Kono said, even as they watched Steve dip in to kiss the back of Danny’s head. 

“Something’s up, that’s all I’m saying.”

“I doubt it. Danny’s son had kind of a tough night and landed in the hospital and it’s got Danny down. Steve has consoled me a time or two. Has even kissed me on the forehead. You think he’s got a thing for me?”

“Sure, he’s kissed you,” Chin shrugged. “…at your wedding. And when you got shot on a case. Oh, and by the way have you heard even one reference from them to a couple of blonde ladies since …Valentine’s Day? As in three months ago?”

“Guys,” Kono yelled to them, shrugging Chin’s words off. “Sandwiches are here, come and get ‘em before we eat yours, too!”

“I’m telling you,” Chin muttered, when they came walking out with Steve’s hand still soothing up and down Danny’s back.

“Maybe,” Kono said. “Maybe not. Not convinced.”

~*~

It was Friday morning that he got his validation: Chin walked into see Kono wandering toward the bullpen; disoriented, wavering.

“Woah… are you okay?” he was with her in a flash. She looked ‘flu-ish’ and one was going around.

“I’m…yeah. You…were right,” she half-sat, half leaned on the computer table.

“About what?”

“I went to the supply closet for printer paper and….” She put a hand over her eyes. “Oh, Chin, I can’t unsee it!”

“Ah….” The fact that it was 9:02 a.m. and there was no sign of either Steve or Danny? It all clicked into place. “I think it’s Danny’s weekend with Grace. They’re probably getting a little…alone time, right?”

“That’s …one way to put it. I saw …tongues. Dueling… tongues. They didn't even know I was there.”

“Oh, come on; we’re all adults. How bad could it be? I mean… I’m sure everything with a button or zipper was …buttoned and zippered. Yes?”

“Yeah. You’re right. They were just making out. That’s not the thing that’s bothering me.”

“What is it, then?”

“It was…” She peered at him from between her fingers. “…um, it was kind of hot.”

“Oh, God…” Chin was out of there, chuckling, headed for his office.

“Should I tell them?”

“Nah. They’ve got enough on their plates, I’m sure, figuring this out. But next time I tell you something’s up…”

“Hell, yeah,” Kono headed for her office, too. “I’ll be listening, Cuz.”


End file.
